'hefeweizen' on Serious Eats

Wheat beers tend to be a love-'em-or-leave-'em proposition. People either like them or they don't. For some it's the sharp taste of the wheat that turns them either on or off. For others it's the banana and clove flavors of the yeast used in German varieties. But it's these very peculiar properties of wheat beers that make them fantastically food friendly and perfect for lighter summer fare. More

Hefeweizen is a wheat beer, but for lovers of serious beer, what makes it exciting is the yeast. (Hefe actually means yeast in German, so this shouldn't be a huge surprise.) The special ale yeasts that are used to make traditional German Hefeweizen produce crazy flavors and aromas during fermentation—you can taste cloves and banana, spice and smoke, even traces of vanilla and bubblegum. More